Software used for collaboration
Danny
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A thread to discuss (through polls and comments) the software used by Biotech Without Borders in order to foster collaborations on the organizations operations and projects. Proposals may include, using a new piece of software, modifying the way we currently use a piece of software, etc.
Short history
I started this thread before we had the option of meeting in person and used the comments here to inform the way I proceeded with setting up various communication channels. We considered using Slack, but there was not a lot of engagement on it and I am personally not enthusiastic about it's use (which isn't to say it is not a good choice to use, just that someone else will likely have to spearhead it's adoption. As per our operational principle of consensus taken from Noisebridge, I am standing aside here). See the context history for more information.
Intention for a working culture at BwoB
(at least for the operational side of things)
I wrote in the introduction to this group that I am quite inspired by the help guides of Loomio. But also an article about working in a company that has no meetings. Among other things this is what stood out to me:
Instead of having meetings, people “talk” to each other via GitHub, Notion, and (occasionally) Slack, expecting responses within 24 hours. Because there are no standups or “syncs” and some projects can involve expensive feedback loops to collaborate, working this way requires clear and thoughtful communication.
Everyone writes well, and writes a lot.
...
But the deal we already had in place was better for what our people prioritize: freedom over growth, sustainability over speed, life over work.
I am hoping that Loomio can help with cultivating this culture and I explain how in the presentation linked on the help thread. But there are many software which we might leverage to create a working collaborative culture which is able to engage our community, members and officers.
Internal vs External
Although I believe in transparency (as per the Mission Vision and Values), I also understand a need to draw distinctions between different levels of involvement with the organization and allow folks to have spaces to discuss among themselves. There is also a difference in opening up access to software for a broader community and inviting that community to become a member in order or engage with the software. The Permission Levels refers to a conceptual separation of the the users of the software into meaningful groups that engage differently with that piece of software.
Current Software Ecosystem @ BwoB
I will revisit this later and create a mind map using FreePlane, but for now I offer a list and some short descriptions on how they work together to build a cohesive stack of software that allows the BwoB community, members and officers to work together. In bringing this stack together I have been influenced by this article as well as the discussions on this thread and 1:1. I go into more of the rationale for using Loomio and Open Collective in this presentation delivered at Biosummit 6.0
Software |
Purpose(s)/Function(s) |
Permission Levels |
Loomio (you're already here!) |
Discussion and Decision making (aka consensus building) |
Community, Members, Officers External Facing (via email invite) |
|
Email, Managing Google Ad grant, Video chat, External calendar File storage |
Officers External Facing (via Google services |
|
|
External appointments, Document Signing, Project Management, Internal calendar Video chat (potentially via Matrix with Jitsi backend) File storage |
Members, Officers External Facing (on a per file basis and with appointments) |
|
(E2E) Chat |
Community, Members, Officers External Facing (still working to determine the best way to integrate select channels from different DIY projects and other chat services [Slack, Discord, Signal, Telegram, Whats App, Instagram, Twitter] into a single chat room) |
|
Collecting membership dues and donations, reimbursing mission aligned-purchases, transparent budget reporting |
Officers Members (still working to determine the best way to allow members manage funds for their mission-aligned projects) Community, External Facing (payment and reimbursement only) |
|
Mailing list, CRM |
Officers External Facing (receive only) |
|
CiviCRM (link forthcoming pending security review) |
Mailing list, CRM |
Officers Members (still working to determine the best way to allow members to manage information for their mission-aligned projects) External Facing (once a migration from MailChimp can be completed this platform will serve as our CRM) |
Sharing references |
Members, Officers, External Facing |
|
Moodle (link will change at some point to learning.biotechw...) |
Developing and Delivering training |
Members, Officers Community, External Facing (pending creation of broadly applicable training) |
Yuriy Fazylov Mon 12 Jul 2021 4:48AM
So We don't do BWOB domains but we need one to enter slack? what's up with that?
Danny Mon 31 Jan 2022 7:02PM
If folks want to join the slack send an email to [email protected] and someone will generate you a link. Also any person in the slack should be able to invite new folks. No official policy yet on getting an email with our domain. I assume this will be for Officers.
For members I started a Matrix server to chat with. It'll be bridged to discord and slack channels as appropriate. Mattermost integration will come eventually.
Deleted account Sat 17 Apr 2021 12:41AM
was this efficient? I think yes.
Danny Sat 17 Apr 2021 9:53PM
I don't understand. What is efficient?
Deleted account Sat 17 Apr 2021 10:49PM
this process of engaging on loomio with the benefit of records to go back to. project management suite seems functional
Danny Sun 18 Apr 2021 1:18AM
We will see :D Thanks for the vote of confidence.
Item removed
Danny Wed 24 Nov 2021 1:28PM
Actually I probably didn't think the previous answer through enough. I don't see Loomio as a project management solution. We will probably use a kanboard on Nextcloud for that. I see this as a decision making tool. But in order to make a decision one has to again support and that is the purpose of the poll tool.
Vikram Krishnamoorthy Sun 18 Apr 2021 9:58PM
I'm glad to see the robust discussion taking place in this thread! One thing I'd like to mention that can make Loomio work better/make the record easier to parse in the future is to have back and forth discussions in the new slack here: https://join.slack.com/t/biotechwithoutborders/shared_invite/zt-ozkqqxli-rDcLMqj01W9QyD_9_3zphA
Slack is also a great place to connect with other members to have general discussions, participate in group chats, reach out to members regrading questions, etc. In this context, it would be useful to have parts of the discussion either in a slack direct chat or in a slack group chat (Feel free to create new channels as well!!) and post a summary of each side of the discussion here to Loomio.
Danny · Fri 16 Apr 2021 3:13AM
Since some have expressed some interest in using Slack. Here is an invite to a free workspace I made. As I said in the community meeting I probably will lurk on it more (at least at first). But I don't want to stop people from having a place they feel comfortable communicating in.
https://join.slack.com/t/biotechwithoutborders/shared_invite/zt-ozkqqxli-rDcLMqj01W9QyD_9_3zphA